Builder of special Hawks team gets chance to do same in Florida

Tallon named Panthers general manager

May 18, 2010|By David Haugh | In the Wake of the News

SAN JOSE, Calif. — After the Blackhawks selected Patrick Kane with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 NHL draft, a Toronto TV reporter asked then-general manager Dale Tallon about the unorthodox decision of taking a player so small so high.

"We had no reservations at all because of the size of his heart," Tallon responded.

Like everything else Tallon did as a player, broadcaster and front office executive with the Blackhawks, he went by feel.

Three years later, on a day Tallon became the Panthers' new GM and his former team prepared for Game 2 in the Western Conference finals, the star he once stood behind acknowledged the Hawks may not be standing at the door of franchise history if not for Tallon's instincts.

"You'd never really see a guy that size go that high in the draft, so I'll always remember (Tallon) had that courage to pick a guy like myself,'' Kane said Monday.

The Panthers' hiring confirmed what everybody around the Hawks has known all season but been reluctant to express: Tallon, 59, put together a team playing at a level high enough to be the next Stanley Cup champion.

What struggling NHL franchise wouldn't want to hire that guy?

"Obviously, it's a bittersweet moment." Tallon told the Tribune on his way to Florida, where he will be introduced Tuesday. "(But) I must do what's right for myself and my family. I'm excited. It's important that we build for the future and keep developing our good young players like we did in Chicago.''

In Chicago, Tallon could be remembered for building the '10 Blackhawks the way Jim Finks is remembered for building the '85 Bears and Ken Williams the '05 White Sox. Those were championship teams. This one sure has that look.

Tallon drafted Kane in '07 and Jonathan Toews in '06. He traded for Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg. He pulled Antti Niemi off a Zamboni in Finland and lured Marian Hossa and John Madden here during free agency.

Not to be overlooked, he hired Joel Quenneville.

"He did a tremendous job here and built a special team that I feel fortunate to be a part of,'' Quenneville said. "We're the beneficiaries of a lot of Dale's work.''

Indeed, if the Hawks win the Cup, the guys Tallon brought to Chicago are the ones who will be at the front of the parade route fans will be clamoring to see along Madison Street. Tallon will be busy in Florida, hoping he can end the NHL's longest string of not making the playoffs for a team in one city by targeting skill and character as well as he did in Chicago.

"We all said a long time ago that Dale's been a big part of what's going on here,'' said Hawks GM Stan Bowman, who replaced Tallon after spending four years as his right-hand man.

It was classy for Bowman to publicly praise his former boss's role in assembling a team whose success ultimately could secure Bowman's legacy more than Tallon's.

Tallon took the fall for a clerical error in June in which the Hawks missed the deadline to make routine qualifying contract offers to eight players, which could have resulted in the team losing all eight to free agency. They didn't – the worst repercussion was overpaying for Versteeg and former Hawk Cam Barker – and some Blackhawks conspiracy theorists still wonder about Bowman's role in the monumental error.

The episode gave the Hawks, addicted to details since team President John McDonough took over, an opening to replace a guy prone to doing the job by the gut with one more comfortable going by the book.

Like every GM, Tallon missed too. Remember the failed four-year, $16 million Adrian Aucoin deal in 2005? And when the Hawks sought to make a splash during the summer of 2008, Tallon overpaid and signed Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet.

But around the league, Tallon enjoys more respect than some think he received when the Hawks showed him the door. One GM wrote in Tallon's name on the ballot for the NHL's inaugural GM of the Year award, according to ESPN.com. Rick Dudley, the new GM of the Atlanta Thrashers who was with Tallon in London, Ontario, the night he decided to draft Kane No. 1, believes Tallon's ability to evaluate talent set him apart.

"I'm surprised it's taken this long for somebody to hire Dale,'' Dudley, who spent 2004-09 in the Hawks' front office, said in a phone interview. "You never get the credit you deserve but, with Dale, the people that matter know.''

A group of those people took turns Monday in the Hawks dressing room recalling how Tallon impacted their team and their lives – and, in a nod to Tallon's folksy style, not necessarily in that order.

"It was kind of the same feeling when Denis Savard was let go, you feel like you owe so much to the people that gave you these opportunities,'' Toews said. "Dale's the type of guy who makes you feel comfortable and really got me started off on the right foot.''

No, Tallon won't be in the team photo of the 2010 Blackhawks. But nobody can dispute he is among the handful of people most responsible for making it a possible collector's item.